Warning: SPOILERS for Squid Game season 1.
Squid Game episode 6 features the participants playing fatal games of marbles, but why did the Old Man sit in the corner while choosing partners? For most of Squid Game, the Old Man/Oh Il-Nam was a fan-favorite who gained sympathy from Gi-hun as the eldest player that everyone underestimated. The Old Man formed a close bond with Gi-hun, and that’s why Player 456 decided to choose him as his partner for the marbles game, even if it was against his better survival judgment.
For Squid Game episode 6’s marbles matches, the players were first tasked with separating into pairs, which led the players to try to choose the most and agile as a partner. When everyone dispersed into looking for a suitable partner, the Old Man assumedly figured Gi-hun nor anyone else would choose him, so he sat alone in a corner. At the last minute, Gi-hun holds out his hand and asks the Old Man to pair up with him for the game. Squid Game’s Old Man accepts, and it leaves everyone with a partner for marbles besides Player 212/Mi-nyeo, who then must stay behind as the odd-player-out.
Since it was assumed that being left without a partner and thus not being able to play would mean death, it was curious at the time why the Old Man isolated himself in a corner instead of searching for another player. Squid Game’s twist ending which reveals the Old Man survived and was actually in charge of the games the whole time better explains his early decision. While most characters assumed player 212 would have been killed for not having a partner, it’s revealed at the end that she remained in the game because simply having an odd-man-out wouldn’t be a fair way for her to be eliminated. It’s likely that the Old Man communicated with Squid Game's Front Man that having an odd number of players in marbles would be the easiest way to take himself out of the game without having to elaborately fake his death, so he tried to isolate himself from the other players to not have a partner. If the Old Man was the one player left without a partner, he could have easily been taken out of the game with the staff lying and saying he was killed for that reason.
This would have saved him the trouble of faking his death after the marbles game with Gi-hun, which required more elaborate planning and stalling after purposefully losing. The marbles game was also riskier because he had no idea if Gi-hun or anyone who could’ve chosen him were actually good at marbles or not. The Old Man had clearly decided that he wanted to take himself out before Squid Game’s glass bridge challenge, which was much more about luck and would have been very difficult for him to fake his death. The Old Man could have chosen number 16 and gone last, but it’s possible the players in front of him wouldn’t have chosen the correct path or taken too long and let the glass explode, which could have actually killed him either way. By sitting in the corner in episode 6 to avoid a marbles partner, the Old Man would’ve easily removed himself beforehand by letting the other players assume he was killed.
The Old Man was still able to exit the game by faking his death after intentionally losing to Gi-hun in marbles, but the no-partner exit would have been much simpler. Additionally, it proves that him letting Gi-hun win the game wasn’t him being kind by letting the younger man live. Had the Old Man been left out of the game as he intended, Gi-hun probably would’ve lost to whoever his partner was because he was clearly terrible at marbles. It was likely a nuisance for the Old Man to be chosen as a partner in Squid Game episode 6, but a godsend for Gi-hun because the Old Man had to let him win.